In the days leading up to the Half, we are also taking a cruise! A 4 night cruise on board the Disney Wonder...pure heaven!

We are leaving this weekend so this post will probably be my last until we return! I'm super excited about this whole trip! 4 nights in the Bahamas followed by a few nights at Walt Disney World's Polynesian Resort. We've never stayed here before so I'm REALLY excited about it!!

I have my outfit for the half all picked out and ready to go! I'm wearing my run love fleur running skirt and a pink top! (Also SUPER excited about seeing the Running Skirt twins at the Half Marathon Expo!!)

We also got tickets for Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party!!

Tapering for the half is going well! I'm going to try and run a few times while on board the ship and I may run the Castaway Cay 5K while on the island. We'll see how I feel. Hopefully (crossing my fingers), this cruise goes well and I don't get seasick the whole time like I was last cruise!

Hope you all have a fantastic week! See you when I return! Have a MAGICAL day! :0)

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Since it's ok to have a little fun every once in a while and give yourself a good laugh, I'm sharing an e-mail that my HUSBAND sent to me! He thinks he's funny for sending this my way I'm sure!

No I don't believe any of this...I actually sounds like the person asking the questions, I think that's why my husband thinks he's funny for sending this to me! :0)

Q: I've heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life; is this true?A: Your heart is only good for so many beats, and that's it... Don't waste them on exercise. Everything wears out eventually. Speeding up your heart will not make you live longer; that's like saying you can extend the life of your car by driving it faster. Want to live longer? Take a nap.

Q: Should I cut down on meat and eat more fruits and vegetables?A: You must grasp logistical efficiencies. What does a cow eat? Hay and corn. And what are these? Vegetables. So a steak is nothing more than an efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to your system. Need grain? Eat chicken. Beef is also a good source of field grass (green leafy vegetable). And a pork chop can give you 100% of your recommended daily allowance of vegetable products.

Q:How can I calculate my body/fat ratio?A: Well, if you have a body and you have fat, your ratio is one to one. If you have two bodies your ratio is two to one, etc. (I think this was the funniest one!!)

Q:What are some of the advantages of participating in a regular exercise program?A: Can't think of a single one, sorry. My philosophy is: No Pain...Good!

Q:Aren't fried foods bad for you?A: YOU'RE NOT LISTENING!!! ...... Foods are fried these days in vegetable oil. In fact, they're permeated in it. How could getting more vegetables be bad for you?

Q: Will sit-ups help prevent me from getting a little soft around the middle?A: Definitely not! When you exercise a muscle, it gets bigger. You should only be doing sit-ups if you want a bigger stomach.

Q: Is chocolate bad for me?A: Are you crazy? HELLO Cocoa beans! Another vegetable!!! It's the best feel-good food around!

Q: Is swimming good for your figure? A: If swimming is good for your figure, explain whales to me.

Q: Is getting in-shape important for my lifestyle?A: Hey! 'Round' is a shape!

Well, I hope this has cleared up any misconceptions you may have had about food and diets.

AND......

For those of you who watch what you eat , here's the final word on nutrition and health. It's a relief to know the truth after all those conflicting nutritional studies.

1. The Japanese eat very little fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.2. The Mexicans eat a lot of fat and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.3. The Chinese drink very little red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.4. The Italians drink a lot of red wine and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.5. The Germans drink a lot of beers and eat lots of sausages and fats and suffer fewer heart attacks than Americans.

CONCLUSION

Eat and drink what you like. Speaking English is apparently what kills you.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

It has been a whirlwind crazy time here lately! We got home from the concert weekend, went back to work, then left again this weekend for an overnight stay in Houston, TX with friends for an Astros game! Thankfully this trip was only a one nighter so we are back home now and can enjoy the rest of the weekend at home!

The concert. was. AMAZING. The whole weekend was amazing, actually! :0) I had such a great time with Kim and Kayla! We all get along really well so it was fun!!

Kayla and I started off Saturday morning with a 5 mile run. We got up at 5 a.m. and attempted this run. It was dark. Beyond dark. Ridiculously dark. Kayla lives in the BOONIES so there are NO street lights and a LOT of woods. Talk about scared to death! I had my reflector, a flash light, and my pepper spray. I ran with a flashlight in one hand and pepper spray in the other! Hah!

Here's Kayla with all her gear!

At one point, we kinda freaked cause there was a possum on the side of the road (of course we couldn't see what it was) and it jumped and ran and scared the living daylights out of us! It was so crazy!!! The sun started to come up about an hour into our run. I was supposed to run father (10 miles) but we didn't have time so we went back home to shower and get ready to leave! We had quite a few "adventures" on this trip. If you know me, you know I love "adventures". The run was one of those adventures! lol

Our first stop for the morning was a Road Dogs game. The Jonas Brothers have a softball team called the Road Dogs...they travel from city to city when they are on tour and they play a softball game against a team that is from that hometown. They promote XtheText which is all against texting while driving. It's a neat cause and the softball game is free! Woohoo! So we got there, not sure if we could even get tickets cause we figured they were all gone. We were WRONG! These Road Dogs games aren't well advertised (I think on purpose) and you really have to dig to find out info on them, so not a lot of people knew about it!

With the bus...

We got in and found a spot to stand (later we sat down in the bleachers). There were maybe only about 800-1,000 people there so really, this event is not known well by the public. It was awesome. The concert was good, but I think this was one of my favorite parts of the weekend! They were up close and "life size" and the game was a good one!

Nick Jonas hitting a home run!

Joe Jonas in right field! I've so done this before so I know how you feel, Joe! lol

We also made it onto the Houston news website. The blogger lady took our picture and afterwards, we laughed cause we said the headline would be something like "Adults like the Jonas Brothers, too!" Haha! Well I'm not THAT old...Kayla is 23 and Kim and I are 28 so it's ok! :0)

After the game, we checked into our hotel and got ready for the concert that night! We got lucky with our hotel and were able to stay right down the road! It was fabulous!

The Woodlands Pavilion

Camp Rock!

Demi! She's the main reason we decided to take this trip! I think she's is such a great entertainer and she has an amazing voice! She's a great dancer too so I think she's just all around fabulous! :0)

Jonas Brothers time! OK so this is really ridiculous I know...BUT, there's a song that they sing and every time I hear it, I think about the Walt Disney World Wine and Dine Half Marathon that I'm about to run in a few weeks. They opened with this song and it made me all excited for our Disney Cruise and running the Half! "This is the night...for feeling alive..." Woohoo! Can't wait! :0)

So like I said before, the concert was great and so entertaining! I would go back in a heart beat!!

We ended the weekend with a little Cheesecake Factory!!!

I had a blast and so did my friends!!

As far as running/training goes for the week, I've done GREAT this week! Probably my best so far!

Monday, I ran 5 milesTuesday, I took a rest dayWednesday, I ran 4 miles in the morning before workThursday, I took a rest dayFriday, I ran 4 miles before workSaturday, I ran 4 miles after getting home from our tripSunday, I'll run 8 miles for my long run

It's almost tapering time for the WDW Wine and Dine Half Marathon! I'll run 6 miles next Saturday and while on board the Disney Wonder, I'll run a few times. I might do the Castaway Cay 5K again but I'm not sure...we'll see!

Friday, September 10, 2010

My husband got three of these for me as a birthday gift. Coming along with me are my 23 year old Sister in Law and my 28 year old best fried. So apparently, we all have a teenager deep down inside wanting to come out! lol

We are all SO excited! We'll probably be the only non-kid-handling adults there! Hah! Oh well! We're ready to have a good time!

In other news (non running), I think I have the BEST husband on the face of the planet. Rewind...last week, there was a HUGE mixup with my Nikon. It's a long story so in short, it was making funny noises, so I returned it to the store....once it was fixed, it was sent back to the WRONG ADDRESS (when it was supposed to be sent back to the store). Sooo, my baby, my Nikon has been floating around in UPS Space in God only knows where. In the meantime, I've spent hours on the phone and I've had to reschedule a bridal shoot. Not cool. When I finally located my camera and got it all taken care of, I was ok...but I still don't have it. Hopefully, I'll get it back by next week. Hopefully.

So in the meantime, Jason took me out to dinner and then he purchased this for me...

Ever since I've been doing more professional photography, I've been dying for one of these. I've been eyeing this baby for at least 2 years. First, it was the D70, now the D90. I didn't think it was necessary for me since I had a camera that worked perfectly fine...no need for another one, right? Well apparently I was wrong. I've been thinking of having a back up lense or a back up camera for a few months now. I had the thought that if something happened to my camera during a wedding or if something happened to my main lens during a wedding, I would be SCREWED cause I have no backups. Sooo....not only did he purchase this camera for me, on the following day (his day off), he drove to a town about an hour away to pick it up for me! (there were none here) On top of that, he also went to DAVID'S BRIDAL by HIMSELF and picked up my 2 bridesmaids dresses for me!!! He's so awesome! Then, on Thursday, he brought our broken patio umbrella to Bed Bath and Beyond to exchange and he set up the new one for me! Yay! He's pretty great!!! :0)

So anyway, I need to stop blabbing and get to packing! We are leaving tonight for my Sister in Law's house, we are going to get up early Saturday and run, then we are gonna head to the town where the concert is and spend the night! Woohoo! Sunday, we'll go shopping and then come home! Sounds like a fabulous weekend to me! :0)

Monday, September 6, 2010

Wow this is my 100th post! :0) I started this blog back in July of last summer when I began training for my first Half Marathon! I can't believe how crazy fast time has passed! Since then, I've run 2 Half Marathons:

My very first Half, the Walt Disney World Half Marathon - January 2010. I ran this one with my friend, Laura! She is my "official" RB - aka Running Buddy! lol

The following month, February of 2010, I ran the Rock and Roll New Orleans Half Marathon with my friend, Heather!

We had a great time and really pushed hard to get our PR's! Yay!!

I have quite a few races on the calendar for this year. I've signed up for three so far and two are actually coming up in the month of October!

In just three weeks, we will be on the Disney Wonder sailing around the Bahamas and soaking up the sunshine! Three days after we get off the ship, I'll be running a night time Half Marathon with my RB, Laura!

It starts at 10:30 p.m. and I'm kinda worried about that but I'm sure it'll be fine! I'm excited about getting away and going on vacation! Can't wait! Hopefully this cruise is better on me than the last one was. It made me so seasick. However, the last cruise was a 7 day cruise and this one is just a 4 day so hopefully I will be ok! I know now that I can't have Sprite or Ginger Ale to "help me feel better"...that just made me worse last time so if I wear my super hot sweat band things on my wrists, I should be ok!

Up next after Wine and Dine is the Jazz Half Marathon! I'm really excited about running it cause I'm running it with my Sister in Law and it's her first Half Marathon! I'm also excited about it because it's on Halloween weekend and we are going to dress up! It may sound silly but we are going to be so cute! We have the outfits all picked out...I just need to do a little iron on patch work and we'll be good to go! We are going to be two players from the AAGPBL (Rockford Peaches)!! Everything we are wearing is runner friendly, too! lol I'm really excited! In doing a little research, I discovered that their home uniforms were white (with red as an accent color) so that's what we'll be wearing. Their away uniforms were the pink uniforms with the accent colors. That's how each team's uniform rotation was set....home games were white with the accent color and away games were the colored uniform! Something I never knew before! :0)

And so far, the last race I've registered for, the one I've been doing all of this running and training for...

The 2011 Walt Disney World FULL Marathon!! This will be a first for me! I'm so excited I can't wait! My goal for this race is to FINISH! I think I will be running this alone so hopefully I'll be ok. It's the stretch after the Magic Kingdom and the Grand Floridian on the way to Animal Kingdom that I'm worried about! I'll have to prepare myself mentally for that cause I hear it's a pretty boring stretch but I think I'll be ok! I've got a good training schedule and a good running group/coach so all should go well!

Speaking of training, I took today off cause I didn't feel like running! lol My soreness only lasted about half the day yesterday and after that, I was ok! I just didn't feel like doing anything today! I did clean out under one of the beds and I finished putting up Fall decorations (I couldn't find my fall candles but I finally found them today!). Other than that, it's been a pretty boring day! lol Boring is good around here lately! :0)

Sunday, September 5, 2010

"Today feels like October and I'm LOVING it!" This comment was mentioned by a running group buddy as we set out on our run yesterday morning. There's a large group of us (about 10 or so) who all run together. Only problem is, everyone has different mileage to do because everyone is running different races. So, we started out with 6 miles...that's what most of the group had to run. I was supposed to run 12 miles and my other two friends are doing the Houston Full Marathon were to run 10 miles. They offered to do 12 miles with me which was SO very nice! So after we refueled, we set out on what we thought would be our next 6 mile journey.

We were VERY bored with the route...not that it was anyone's fault, we just all didn't want to run the route that was set out! lol So along the way, Tara started to pick flowers. Yes, flowers. Off of trees, bushes, wild flowers, anywhere she saw a flower, she picked it! We got to a water cooler that met up with another route so we decided to change routes and run that way instead, not realizing how much more mileage it would add to our run that morning! Whoopsie! However, this is where all the fun began!!!!

This route led us by a river! So naturally, along the way, we found some wildlife...and we saved some wildlife...lol

Tara with her flowers and the sand crab we found. She put it back in the water and saved it's life from getting run over by a truck!

Poor crabbie!

Tara with her flowers! About the 8th mile, we all started acting like FOOLS! Jokingly, we said the flowers were "crack flowers" because seriously...we were acting crazy!!!! It was SO much fun!

Tara, Amanda, and I!

After running a little more, Amanda started screaming and points to this snake in the road. Of course, I joined in the screaming cause I HATE snakes! I calmed down a little when I realized it was a baby, but then I saw that it was a GROUND RATTLER and it was shaking it's tail and was ready to ATTACK so I kinda freaked out again! Aaaaaaaaaah!!!!! I've never seen a ground rattler before! It was really scary!!!

We tried to save it's life too, but it wouldn't have any of that...so we left it alone!

On our way back to home base, Tara decided to change the route up AGAIN so we ran down one of the busiest roads in our town!!! lol I hope no one that we knew saw us! Haha! It was decided that Amanda was a bad holder of the flowers cause she dropped some along the way.

So I got to be the holder of the flowers! :) I was told I was a good baby sitter! lol

We were the LAST ONES still running and back to home base in the end! We had hoped everyone had waited on us cause we had keys in the box! lol Usually, it's SO HARD to find your keys (cause there are hundreds stacked on top of yours), but it wasn't too bad that day! lol

Tara and her dang "stranger danger" whistle! She kept blowing it during our run! She usually carries pepper spray with her but today, she just had a whistle!

Soooo, if you could keep up with all of that silliness and you are still reading, thanks for sticking around! :0)

In total, we ran 13.5 miles. This is the longest distance any of us had run before and we had a BLAST doing it! I never knew 13 miles could be so much fun! :0) I mean, it's fun in races but we had no one pushing us...it was just us and the road! We started about 5:30 a.m. and I was in my car by 9 a.m. (we took quite a few breaks...stayed and talked around after we finished, etc).

Now today, I am SORE and my entire lower body is aching. I'm going to take some Tylenol. Hopefully that helps! I have church this morning and a wedding/bridal shower tonight and then tomorrow, I'm taking the day OFF!! Woohooo! Hope everyone has a restful Labor Day!

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Hi! Welcome to Just Me & My Running Shoes! My name is Karen, I am a 30 year old runner, Disney lover, & Oncology Nurse. I am passionate about volunteering, fitness, traveling, and living an overall healthy lifestyle. Want to contact me? I can be reached at:kren2700@gmail.com.Have a fabulous day and thanks for stopping by!